12Mar10

source: Sydney Morning Herald 12 March, 2010

There’s been a decided shift in television viewing numbers already in 2010 and it seems to be a nationwide trend. Here in Newcastle we have been intrigued by the difference in audience numbers this year compared to the same time last year.

So far there seems to be an average of 20,000 less viewers per top 10 program than for the corresponding week in 2009. For example the #1 program in Newcastle for week 10, 2010 was The Mentalist with 84,000 viewers. The #5 program was NBN Saturday News with 67,000 viewers and the #10 program was Talkin’ Bout Your Generation on SC TEN with 55,000 viewers.

IN 2009 for the week ending 3 March (corresponding week) here are the numbers: #1 Underbelly on NBN with 124,000 viewers, #5 RSPCA Animal Rescue on Prime with 86,000 viewers and #10 CSI on NBN with 75,000 viewers. Of course, Underbelly is a standout ratings winner but the #1 program last week had less viewers than the #5 program last year.

As you can see there are about 20,000 less viewers for the main Free-to-Air channels. And this is happening every week.

Now the national media are picking up on the trend. The rest of this post is taken from today’s Sydney Morning Herald.

30Nov09

Home-style cooking, home-made crimes and daggy old variety television were the flavours of the TV year in Newcastle and viewers can expect more of the same in 2010.

The official 2009 ratings survey finished at the weekend with NBN holding on to its crown as Newcastle’s No.1 station.

NBN’s nightly news bulletins, rugby league telecasts and crime drama Underbelly 2: A Tale of Two Cities made it a clear winner in its home market, capturing 32.9 per cent of prime-time viewers.

Two reunion episodes of Hey Hey It’s Saturday also boosted the Nine Network owned station. The Daryl Somers comeback shows drew more than 97,000 viewers each to most-watched programs.

But the hottest new show of the year was dished up by Southern Cross Ten. Kitchen contest MasterChef Australia helped make third-ranked Ten Newcastle’s most improved station in 2009, with a 20.3 per cent audience share (up 1.5 percentage points).

16Nov09

Apart from looking at the Ratings flogging that NBN gives each station every week; let’s look towards the Most Watched Programs instead. ‘Oh wait’, they’re identical in the beating that NBN gives as well.

Every week NBN rules this Ratings Roost, so instead of ignoring the consecutive winner, lets have a look at what and why this station must take out that winner spot every week.

9Nov09

Last weeks ratings were nothing Shocking compared to every other week.

With 110,00 Novacastrians plastered (so to speak) to ‘The 2009 Melbourne Cup’, some thought Prime may have had some winning hope. However, like a perfectly constructed Crime Scene, NBN took it out again with a31.3% win over Prime’s 22.6% second place.SC TEN managed to secure 3rd place again with 19.3% over ABC’s 18.7%.

19Oct09

This week let’s not even start with NBN and PRIME in their usual 1st (31.7%) and 2nd (25.1%) positions in the Ratings.

Lets look at 3rd and 4th. Who took it out this week? With only the average scores scraping 18% audience share.

ABC ruled the roost to beat SC TEN again this week. It has been an up & down struggle between these two channels of late, but ABC took it out. Mind you they both couldn’t pull the numbers to make the Top Ten Programs watched this week.

Interesting though, ABC, has always kept a consistent average viewing percentage over the years (oldie but a goodie). However, SC TEN this time last year was in the 20% range and continues to roll-a-coaster through the ratings this year.

12Oct09

Huge numbers this week for the Newcastle ratings. No surprise why, as the footy finals were on.

The NBN Grand Final coverage pulled in an outstanding 176,000 viewers, just for the one game. Mind you the Grand Final Presentation clocked up a large 122,000 viewers and even the Grand Final Entertainment for the night, “entertained” 109,000 people.

The top non-football show was Hey Hey’s controversial episode pulling in around 98,000. Then standard weekly shows and numbers follow through with the rest.

NBN averaged 36.2% for first place; Prime came up short with 21.0% for second place, ABC once again beat SC TEN with an average 19.9%. Where were you this week SC TEN only managing to accumulate 16.5% viewing audience?

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Craig Wilson a leading digital marketing, SEO and social media consultant with a passion for effective inbound marketing. He is managing director of Sticky, a digital agency based in Newcastle, Australia that has evolved to encompass:

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